Picking up a pencil, pen and brush again. Trying new techniques and maybe developing my own style.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Journaling in the wild

One of the reasons I jumped at the chance to take a watercolor journaling workshop was because I wanted to create a more artistic journal during my trip to Costa Rica. The journal I purchased for this trip was a hand•book trav•e•logue made by Global Art Materials. It is a hardbound book of 100% acid-free heavyweight buff colored drawing paper that accepts light watercolor washes. It has an internal ribbon to mark your place, an elastic closure and a clear envelope inside the back cover. They come in several sizes, I selected the Pocket Portrait 5.5” X 3.5” version since it would easily fit in my travel pack.

I enjoyed using this journal even though it could only take light watercolor washes. One interesting aspect of the paper is that you can easily use a kneaded eraser to erase both the watercolors and the ink. Something that is not usually easy to do. The buff color of the paper also gave the paintings an 'old time' look, which is a nice attribute for a travel journal. The journal opens flat making it easy to create a painting across two-pages, like this one done while finishing our first breakfast at theOrquideas Inn in Alajuela Costa Rica.